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Security is a Problem of the Weakest Link

While attending the ICSE 2006 conference I stayed at the Tong Mao hotel. My room featured an impressive-looking safe: thick steel, two bolts, and a digital lock.

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Surprising Findings on Software Reuse

Kevin DeSouza and his colleagues in a recent article in the Communications of the ACM published some surprising findings regarding software reuse: reuse happens more by novices rather than by experts, within projects rather than across them, and in transient teams rather than permanent ones. The statement regarding the higher propensity of rookies to reuse compared to older professionals rang particularly true to my ears.

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Debuggers and Logging Frameworks

As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered.

— Maurice Wilkes discovers debugging, 1949

The testing, diagnostic, and repair equipment of many professions is horrendously expensive. Think of logic analyzers, CAT scanners, and dry docks. For us the cost of debuggers and logging frameworks is minimal; some of them are even free. All we need to become productive, is to invest some time and effort to learn how to use these tools in the most efficient and effective way.

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